Nation's Restaurant News reports on a federal lawsuit seeking class action status claiming that Starbucks underfills its steamed-milk coffee drinks to save on ingredient costs:
a federal lawsuit claims that the Seattle-based coffee giant deliberately underfills its lattes by approximately 25 percent.
"Starbucks lattes are uniformly underfilled pursuant to a standardized recipe," says the lawsuit filed against the company this week. "Tall lattes are not 12 fluid ounces. Grande lattes are not 16 fluid ounces, and Venti lattes are not 20 fluid ounces. Starbucks cheats purchasers by providing less fluid ounces in their lattes than represented."
Starbucks has yet to respond to the lawsuit, but a company spokeswoman said Friday that the company is aware of the claims, "which we fully believe to be without merit."...Starbucks is the latest chain to face a lawsuit over allegations that it cheats customers. Sandwich chain Subway, for instance, recently settled a lawsuit that it shorts customers an inch on its Footlong subs.
I suppose it's slightly better that an enterprising class action lawyer is going after Starbucks on this front than some politically ambitious attorney general, but only slightly so. From the company's point of view, it's pretty transparent to the customer how much coffee or milk are in the cup. If the customers don't like how much is in there, no one is forcing them to come back.
